Originally posted by Nanakiwurkz
a big question is to Jheriko. is it possible to use your gvm tool to create fractals?
Well, if you want a static fractal you could generate an image and store it in the megabuf then use that to draw it.. it wouldnt be fast though.
You need to approach the problem more logically I think. First find a fractal you wish to render. Secondly, find an algorithm or algorithms for generating it.
Most fractals come in one of three basic types as far as rendering is concerned (excuse my made up terms):
Continuous: e.g. mandelbrot/julia fractals. These are potentially the most expensive to generate since you need to iterate per sample on some 1d/2d/3d line/grid/volume to work out the colour at that point.
Constructive: e.g. dragon curve, pythagoras tree. These are probably the easiest and cheapest to render since they are simply collections of lines/triangles where each iteration adds more lines/triangles to the shape, but doesnt change the existing ones
Subdividing: e.g. Koch snowflake. The Koch snowflake can be constructive if we use triangles, but if we want to find the border curve we must take 3 lines to start with (triangle edges) and replace each line with 4 new lines per iteration. Since we have to throw away the old geometry for each iteration these fractals are slightly more expensive than the simpler, constructive sort.
If your fractal is continuous I would recommend going and finding something else, unless you notice a convienient hack (see the varying DM julia set presets).
The constructive sort are quite easy to render as long as you understand the algorithm involved, you typically just need to create a superscope/triangle renderer which mimicks the algorithm for drawing the fractal.
The subdividing sort are a bit more complicated, and you would invariably need to use megabuf to get a reasonable iteration count.
Ultimately though, you want to learn how to render points, lines and triangles before attempting anything this complicated :P
Hope this helped...